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How to Directly Clean Install Windows 10 without having to Upgrade First

Information

By default to get the free Windows 10 offer, you would normally need to upgrade to Windows 10 on your activated Window 7 or Windows 8.1 PC to register the activation of Windows 10 for your PC on Microsoft's activation servers. Afterwards, you would be able to clean install Windows 10 on the PC anytime, and have Windows 10 automatically activated.

This tutorial will show you how to directly clean install Windows 10 on your activated Window 7 or Windows 8.1 PC without having to upgrade first, and have Windows 10 legally activated afterwards.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

Note

Windows 10 Upgrade Paths

This will help show you what edition of Windows 10 USB or ISO you need based on what edition your current Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 PC is.

Device activation improvements: Microsoft has received a lot of feedback from Insiders on making it easier to activate Windows 10 on devices that take advantage of the free upgrade offer to genuine Windows by using existing Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 product keys. If you install this build of the Windows 10 Insider Preview on a PC and it doesn’t automatically activate, you can enter the product key from a qualifying Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 used to activate the prior Windows version on the same device to activate Windows 10 by going to Settings > Update & security > Activation and selecting Change Product Key.

If you haven’t upgraded to Windows 10 yet and perform a clean installation, you’ll need to enter a qualifying product key for Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 or buy a license in order to activate Windows 10.

4. Open the sources folder in the opened USB or mounted ISO, and copy the gatherosstate.exe file to your desktop. (see screenshot below)

Warning

You must copy the gatherosstate.exe file to your desktop.

If you do step 5 below directly from the sources folder location instead of from your desktop, it will not work.

5. Right click or press and hold on the gatherosstate.exe file on your desktop, and click/tap on Run as administrator. This will create a GenuineTicket.xml file on your desktop.

Note

The Windows you are currently running must be activated to be able to create a GenuineTicket.xml file.

6. Copy the GenuineTicket.xml file to a USB or another drive than your Windows drive as a backup. You will need this GenuineTicket.xml file later to activate Windows 10 with.

7. Do a clean install of Windows 10 on your Windows 7/8.1 PC to replace the Windows 7/8.1 with Windows 10. Be sure to click/tap on Skip when asked to enter a product key during Windows Setup. (see screenshot below)

8. When Windows 10 is finished installing, open File Explorer, copy and paste the folder path below into the address bar, and press Enter to open the GenuineTicket folder.

I'm going to give this one a workout for sure! One thing I did when browsing to the GenuineTicket folder for the present install was an empty folder since the clean install followed an upgrade. I suspect that would be the reason for that.

I will be looking at the old case(900-1) to add in a second drive for the owner to see a 7/10 dual boot there however where this will cut the need for seeing an upgrade over another temp install of 7 Pro on a second drive. It will also be a good time saver when going to lug that steel case around to get things done! :)

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Shawn always does a great job on the guides! :) I still have that other 7 Pro case to look at there where this will be a time saver from a second drive's temp install or clone and the upgrade only to be followed by the clean install to come afterwards.

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Would this method also work on a system already running windows 10 Pro, that was upgraded from windows 10 home?? Just wondering if I could use this method to do a clean install of Win 10 Pro. This computer came with Windows 8 home edition, then by the original owner was upgraded to win 10 home. Then I upgraded this computer to Windows 10 Pro, with a bought key. Its never really had a clean install.

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hi,
nice option, i like it...
just one question..maybe two..
-fresh install, does it's meant ok to change partition. (red is system reserves for windows 8 pro) <-can i delete this
-(blue is 10 pro system reserves) <- can i delete this one too
- and delete the whole partition and make new one, just for 10 pro. and activated with genuine ticket?

ps- my curently activated windows 10 pro doesn't have genuine ticket in %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC\ folder (just checked)
but i can make one with gatherosstate.exe...
thanks in advance!

Last edited by bayustev; 25 Sep 2015 at 08:59.

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Yes, you can use this method as well to clean install. It's mostly for those that would prefer to clean install to the free Windows 10 offer first instead of having to upgrade to the free Windows 10 though.

However, since you have already upgraded to Windows 10 Pro on the activated Windows 8 Pro PC, you will be able to clean install normally on the PC and have Windows 10 Pro activated afterwards. Just be sure to "skip" entering a product key during Windows Setup.

Yes, you can use this method as well to clean install. It's mostly for those that would prefer to clean install to the free Windows 10 offer first instead of having to upgrade to the free Windows 10 though.

However, since you have already upgraded to Windows 10 Pro on the activated Windows 8 Pro PC, you will be able to clean install normally on the PC and have Windows 10 Pro activated afterwards. Just be sure to "skip" entering a product key during Windows Setup.

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